Fresh hashbrown potatoes, made from thin (1/8th -1/4th inch thick) strips of fresh potatoes provide a nutritious and attractive meal accompaniment, especially for breakfast. While hashbrowns from fresh potatoes undeniably deliver the best potato flavor, in many circumstances it is difficult if not impossible to provide freshly cut potatoes for hashbrowns. For instance, restaurants having limited time available to prepare meals would find it difficult to prepare fresh potatoes for each order of hashbrowns.
Fresh-cut hashbrown potatoes form adequate patties upon frying due to the presence of free starch on the cut potato surface resulting from ruptured potato cells (this free starch acting as "glue" when heated and gelatinized to hold the potato pieces together). Dehydrated fresh potato pieces will not form patties because the cut potato pieces are washed prior to dehydration, thereby removing the free starch. For this reason, dry hashbrown products must provide a "glue" or "binder" in one form or another to make the fresh dehydrated potato pieces adhere to one another in a patty when rehydrated and fried. As described hereinafter, this binder results when fabricated dry potato pieces exhibit adequate sloughing during rehydration.
Therefore, there have been developed, for the institutional or restaurant business, as well as for sale for household preparation dry hashbrown products, such as represented by U.S. Pat. No. 3,634,105, Beck, et al. The product of the '105 Patent is a dehydrated reconstituted potato mixture which, when rehydrated and fried, can be served as hashbrowns or "pan fries". The process of the '105 Patent includes making a slurry of potatoes (either cooked or from dehydrated potato granules or flakes) to which is added a quantity of raw starch. After mixing, the dough at about 75 to 80% moisture is extruded in strips which are steam heated (to gelatinize the raw starch) and then dried at 180.degree.-200.degree. F. for 3-4 hours to reduce the moisture content to approximately 7.5%. The gelatinized raw starch acts as "glue" to hold the individual potato pieces together when they are fried, thereby making a hashbrown patty.
Subsequently, U.S. Pat. No. 3,725,087, Miller et al and U.S. Pat. No. 3,992,222, Beck et al, disclosed methods of making similar dry hashbrown products. The process disclosed in the '087 Patent comprises making a mash of potatoes (from either fresh or dehydrated potatoes), with or without the addition of raw cornstarch, which is heated to a temperature of 160.degree.-179.degree. F. and formed into ribbons. Preferably, the ribbons are predried to lower the moisture content to approximately 65%, with a final drying step to reduce the moisture to less than 8%. This final drying step comprises drying the ribbons at a temperature of from 90.degree.-210.degree. F. and a relative humidity of at least 20% for at least 25% of the final drying time; for the other 75% of the final drying time a relative humidity of at least 10% must be maintained. The '222 Patent discloses a method similar to the '105 Patent, except rather than using dehydrated potato granules, the '222 Patent discloses making the potato slurry from cooked fresh potato.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,410,702, Frank, discloses a dehydrated potato mixture for hashbrowns wherein a first portion of the mixture comprises conventionally dehydrated potatoes cut into hashbrown pieces which have been blanched to inactivate enzymes and washed to remove the free starch on the surface of the potato pieces. A second portion of the mixture utilizes dehydrated potato agglomerates formed by extruding random pieces of cooked potatoes through a round die having a diameter of about 1/8-5/8 inch, such that free starch remains on the surface of the potato agglomerates after dehydration. Optionally, potato starch is added to the mixture to increase the patty-forming attributes, i.e., the stickiness of the dried potatoes. Finally, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,635,729, Englar et al, and 3,650,776, Tschirgi, both disclose methods for producing dehydrated potato pieces with increased surface stickiness for improved hashbrown patty forming wherein blanched potato pieces are coated with either a starch solution or a potato/whey solution prior to final dehydration.
All of the above noted patents, with the exception of the '702 Patent, disclose a dry hashbrown product comprising only reconstituted potatoes; without any "fresh" potato pieces, much of the flavor is lost through cooking and processing of the potatoes. The process disclosed in the '702 patent suffers chiefly from the fact that the second portion made from cooked potatoes tend to disintegrate during dry storage into small agglomerates which settle to the bottom of the package giving a non-uniform mixture when rehydrated along with the dehydrated potato pieces. In addition, the mashed agglomerates, upon rehydration, return to a "mashed potato" state distinctly different in appearance and texture from the rehydrated potato pieces--highly unappealing to one desiring hash brown potatoes.
There have been two distinct problems associated with the practice of any of the above noted inventions. Firstly, when making hashbrowns as taught by any of these inventions, there is a perceptible lack of fresh potato flavor in the resulting hashbrown products because all of the potatoes have been processed with relatively high heat. As is well known to those skilled in the art, the more processing and the more heat that fresh potatoes endure results in diminished potato flavor. In an attempt to interject more fresh potato flavor into dehydrated hashbrowns, the '702 Patent discloses a process utilizing a portion of fresh potatoes processed only by cooking, mashing through narrow orifices and dehydration. However, while the fresh potato flavor perception may be somewhat greater, as noted above, the second portion of the mixture rehydrates to a mashed potatoes consistency, which, while it may bind the fresh potato pieces into a patty, is certainly not representative of traditional hashbrown potatoes.
Secondly, the products disclosed above do not accurately replicate fresh hashbrown potatoes--they do not "look" or have the "mouthfeel" of fresh hashbrown potatoes. The hashbrown potato pieces of the present invention are formed by sheeting and cutting a stable, non-sticky dough sheet of controlled moisture content making it possible to simulate dehydrated fresh potato pieces in both appearance and mouthfeel when rehydrated and served in a hashbrown patty.
Therefore, there is a distinct need, as yet unfulfilled, for a dehydrated hashbrown potato mixture which delivers the flavor of fresh potatoes, yet has incorporated therein binder materials which cause the fresh dehydrated potato pieces to adhere one to another in a patty, with the binder being provided from formed potato pieces which have an appearance and texture similar to that of the fresh potato pieces.